Abstract:
Everything from biomedicine to high-speed internet revolves around smaller, faster ways of doing things. Take, for example, miniature biosensing device based on micro- and nanotechnology that could process a patient’s DNA to give them a heads up on whether they are at risk of diseases, such as cancer. One EU project is putting the finishing touches on a system that will do just that. Currently being developed by the EU-backed IST project OPTONANOGEN, a prototype of the system will initially be used to detect mutations of the BRCA1 gene responsible for between 2.5 and 5% of the incidences of breast cancer in women.